We took a day trip to a city north of us, Burgos last weekend. I wanted to go visit the Castle ruins that are there as they have siege tunnels underground you can walk through and large winding stone staircases. It wasn’t a must-see attraction online or even by reviewers. Many reviewers had said it would have been way cooler and the siege tunnels even better had the damn French and Napoleon not blow the place up. Unfortunately, by the time we found our way to castle it was closed. We missed it by a few minutes! Argh! There was a complete lack of signage to the castle. It was clear the the castle ruins was not a major tourist attraction but nonetheless, I was disappointed. We did find a rather impressive playground (at least for those we have seen in Spain – they are all pretty plain and generic with few pieces) that we promised we’d take the kids back to. And after leaving the closed castle, being shuttled into one-way narrow streets and out to the main road we eventually found our way back to the playground. I’m sure this will be the highlight that the kids remember.

We left the house late, we got lost, we had few snacks, we had no extra clothes. It really wasn’t a well planned out trip but it did end up being a great one. At the playground, Lavender had an accident (remember no spare clothes??) but luckily October had pants on under her dress so her pants got sacrificed to Lavender. And while Lavender now had dry pants, she had pee soaked tennis shoes. We leave the playground to go find the cathedral. This is on the must-see lists so we were off to find it. And we could see it. But we just…couldn’t….get….there. The snacks have all been consumed. October’s hungry and letting us know every….three…seconds. I continue driving in hopes of finding the cathedral, taking some pictures, finding some food and heading home. I don’t have lofty goals at this point. I do however find the castle, the closed castle, again in searching for the cathedral. We find a dirt lot by the castle wall, park and head off to find food. I’m really not hopeful. It seems like the place is shutting down for the night. It is a Sunday on a holiday weekend. I see the top of the cathedral poking over some buildings and hastily snap some pictures. I assume this is as close as I’ll get. Lavender is holding up her pants as we hurriedly look for food, to which we stumble into a major plaza of Burgos right off the Cathedral entrance filled with holiday lights, holiday vendors and restaurants. Burgos is known for it’s Morcilla or blood sausage. Unfortunately, we were too hungry to try anything local. Pizza it was! I inadvertently ordered morcilla last time we were in Madrid (I thought it was hamburger) and it was good. It was even October’s favorite tapa that day. Jeff told me what it really was and I just couldn’t order a second after that.

Having our bellies full. We were able to explore and enjoy the plaza. It was cold. October had a dress on and no one had their hats with them but I was the only one who seemed to mind the cold. The girls rode the Carousal, we went for a tourist train ride around the city, the girls had a gigantic doughnut, Jeff had mulled wine, we took pictures and enjoyed seeing all the holiday vendors. I was really glad we didn’t quit and leave after we, also, couldn’t find our way to the cathedral. I was really glad we stuck around for the holiday lights to come on. The town was just coming awake after dinner and we would have missed it. And I’m really glad that October’s internal thermostat is set high! I never could have wandered around for hours with bare legs!

4 Comments

What an adventure day. We rarely plan so have often had the ‘oops it’s closed’ events- but never triple-stacked w freezing and P event. (Insert your classroom translation there. Day to day.) Impressed you all hung in there and made a great day of it!

OMG… that adorable girl made me laugh at the end!! Sort of fitting with the “character” photo shot of Scarlett. Is the religion an overtone of the cities there? Maybe like Utah with Crosses? Just giggling to myself here. 🙂 Caitlin thought that the park looks fun, but I was surprised by the graffiti. Have you seen much throughout Spain?

Lots of religious figures and statues everywhere we go; lots of cathedrals and churches. Many paintings of Jesus in various poses with varying amounts of blood.

Graffiti is EVERYWHERE!! There is not a single piece of playground equipment anywhere I have gone that isn’t covered in graffiti. Along with the graffiti there is litter everywhere in the streets, feral cats and dog poop on the sidewalks. I’ve seen every age just open a wrapper and toss it on the ground here. And I’ve yet to see anyone even holding a doggie poop bag – let alone a sign that indicates you should pick up after your dog. It’s really gross. I’ve been meaning to write a blog post with pictures on this topic.

We’ve been to several cities within 60-90 mile radius of our town and Madrid. Toledo, Burgos, Segovia & Madrid. We have a ten day road trip planned to the south of Spain over the Christmas holiday. If I can manage to get hostals and driving directions in order.

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